As the United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos plans to make rollbacks on Title IX procedures, students and faculty of Point Park might have to adjust to changes in due process policy.

DeVos recently announced that Obama-era Title IX due process procedures will be changed so that accused parties will have a fairer system in place when it comes to the trials.

“We’re not sure yet what she’s going to do,” Elizabeth Rosemeyer, Title IX Coordinator said.

DeVos has promised to still seriously enforce Title IX policies on college campuses, but the new framework will make sure the trials for accused persons will be taken just as seriously.

“Department of Education oversees compliance with Title IX,” Rosemeyer said. “Part of that compliance is making sure schools and universities understand what is expected of them.”

Upon implementation, the Obama administration sent out “Dear Colleague” letters to make sure universities understood.

“One of the pieces in the 2011 letter made it very clear that sexual violence is a form of sex discrimination,” Rosemeyer said. That point had been made clear previously, but this 2011 letter emphasized that universities needed to prevent and respond to sexual violence on campus, according to Rosemeyer.

The “Dear Colleague” letter does recommend a 60-day policy to get everything completed, so Rosemeyer says that’s what Point Park follows.

Within the first 30 days, there is an investigation process. Every person involved in the case is interviewed during this part. The second 30 days is when the case is determined whether it is in violation of university policy or not.

“Each person, from the person who filed the report to the person who is accused, have equal opportunity to make a statement, to bring information on their behalf, to name witnesses or other people who might have information,” Rosemeyer said.

Rosemeyer said outside of the university, a criminal lawsuit is much stricter than the university’s determination. The university can take evidence that would not hold up in court, such as hearsay. A criminal lawsuit has the higher reasonable amount of doubt. It can be decided that a case will not be perused due to a lack of evidence in a criminal lawsuit, but a university would peruse a process if the student accusing wants.

As for junior accounting major and the head of community outreach for Not On My Campus (NOMC), Bradley Calleja says that regardless of what happens to Title IX policy, NOMC will continue to work to eliminate sexually violent crimes and sexual harassment off of Point Park’s campus.

“We’re just going to keep working with Title IX,” Calleja said. “We support what they do in their office and we see the impact we’ve had and the positive outreach that we’ve been able to have within the last year.”

Wesley Ehle, senior acting major and president of NOMC, said that within a year of starting, NOMC received over 300 digital pledges to end sexual assault on campus.

“By pledging to raise awareness and support survivors and not be a bystander, you are already a part of our organization because you’re a part of our goal,” Ehle said.

NOMC plans to reach even more students by putting on different events around campus.

“I think the best thing we can do is just continue what we’re doing, which is just continuing to educate,” Calleja said. “Title IX is still active and working hard and doing their job.”